A question about the 'Fans' section. I saw that the 120 mm Nexus fan was rated at moving 42 CFM @ 12V, however I thought they only moved 37 CFM at that voltage.

Also, has anyone had difficulty in removing the fans in the P180 and replacing them with Nexus fans (I'm thinking mainly about the lower chamber fan)?

Its quite easy to remove the fans (once you get the "trick" of removing the mount). As for mounting the nexus, I guess its the next question is closed versus open corners.

I got my P180 today and spent quite a bit of time with it. The power supply wires were a bit tight, but the bigger problem was my hard drive ribbon cables. There was no way for me to mount my two hard drives in the lower chamber, so I put them on the sleds. The rest of the installation was straightforward.

I first ran the system with the 120x38mm removed, the top 120mm unplugged, and the back 120mm on Low; but the back fan was a bit too noisy for me. I didn't check if it was the mounting or just too much airflow that made the fan audible. To quiet the case fans, I put the back and top 120mm fans on 5 volts (by swapping the red and yellow wires on the Molex power connector feeding the fans) and switched them to Medium. They seem to start reliably, they're completely inaudible in my system (similar to the middle-of-the-road system in the article), and they still blow a little air. I see no need to replace the fans with Nexus models.

The 120x38 didn't sound so bad on Low when held in my hand, but it was very imbalanced and vibrated like a bad hard drive. It would probably be very noisy in the case.

The biggest sources of noise now are my two Samsung Spinpoint 160GB drives (both Nidec-motor models). The rubber grommets do a good job quieting the drives, although I have a hunch that elastic suspension would make an audible improvement. The special side panels dampen the high frequencies, but the drives' "whoosh" is still plainly audible. The noise sounds like is coming from the back of the case, bouncing off the wall. Moving the case under my desk would help a lot, but the case looks too good to be hidden.

I'm happy with my purchase. Transferring my system to the new case didn't magically make it silent, but I think I have a better chance of eventually silencing my PC with this case than with my last one.

I've got a semi-specific question about how much cfm's are needed to adequately cool a fannless PSU in the bottom changer. Would the 37 (or alleged 43) cfm's provided by the Nexus 120 mm be enough to cool a Phantom 350 (or to prevent the fan of the Phantom 500 turning on)?

Edit: Ignore this, just saw p.11 of the review. Damn that thing needs an index!

I re-measured the Nexus when I measured all the other fans for the article, so it's quite possible that I got a different result. Still, 6CFM seems like quite a lot doesn't it! Where did you find that 37 CFM number?

Its on Nexus's website. http://www.nexustek.nl

hmm.. 12th page, bottom: "Intel for the 660 Processor sample."

The link for Intel's site needs to be fixed.

Anyway, great review! When is the Sonata II review coming?

I've seen people mount "egg crate foam" on the wall behind the pc, to lower the reflections. Maybe that can help in your situation too.

KorruptioN,

I have a Seasonic S12-500 and an ASUS A8N SLI Dx MOBO, which has the 12V connector at the very top corner, and it reached with a small margin of slack, and I did not have to run it over the PCIe slots. The cable runs just behind the video card and along the backplane side of the CPU retention module. It should reach fine with just about any other motherboard.

Have fun.

I echo that. Performance-PCs did quite well with the order I placed with them, for my Seasonic S12-500 and ASUS EN6600GT. I normally look at Zipzoomfly first, but they had both parts in stock and excellent prices.

As for the specific extensions Andreos is concerned about, look under Cables=>Power Supply Adapter Cables, and near the bottom of the listing there is Silverstone SST-PP01 Extension set. It handles 20 or 24 pin fine, and has a 12" extension for ATX12v. There is a similar set by Thermaltake, but can't say if the main power extension is 20pin, 24pin, or convertible, and I think the ATX cable is a 4-to-8 pin converter.

Freelancer77, how fast does your seasonic S12-500W PSU fan spin?

Mines locked in at 1780...

I don't have mine connected to anything to tach it with, but it definitely isn't spinning that fast. I'd have to guess under 1200RPM. Then again, I have the 38mm TriCool in there (running on low) because of the full cage of Raptors, so the PSU never gets warm enough for the fan to come up in speed.

Yeah, I had mine out in the open air with just the antec PS tester on it and it was still spinning really fast and loud... I also have the 38mm in there... to no avail. I did exchange it so when I get a new one here I'll see if its doing the same thing. Hopefully not...

So far I've seen two instances of people running the +12V 4-pin line underneath the motherboard. I'd really like to do something like that when I get my parts all in, but I'm just nervous about what could happen with the "pokies" on the back of the motherboard. You know the soldered contacts of the motherboard components on the underbelly of the board?

Would the PSU cable running underneath the board be heated or otherwise enfluence the board due to contact with all that underbelly stuff on the mobo? Sorry this isn't the most technical sounding question in the world, but I just don't know what else to call those things.

I gues what I want to know is, is it 100% safe to run the PSU cable underneath the motherboard like we've seen twice so far? I like the idea. It just makes me nervous.

Oh. and Kick Ass review. I can't wait to order this case.

Since cabels can be routed on top of the motherboard, i seriously doubt they will melt or something like that when underneath it. The only problem i can see is that those soldering points can be very sharp, and if you damage your cables with them, you could end up with a fried motherboard.

Though, you'd have to be real unlucky for that to happen!

Thanks for replying.

Looks like I won't have enough slack to run it underneath the motherboard...

I'm a little late but it's great to see SPCR still LEADING THE REVOLUTION, BABY! The companies that don't send samples must be SCARED because they know the writing on their boxes spouts false promises Many thanks to Mike C and friends - especially friends on this one - for an OUTSTANDING review. Great job Mike and Antec in the actual design! An SPCR branded product! I love the trends I see. Also, the great community here continues to be the engine. Keep up the great work everyone!

Now we just need an Antec TPII/SP2.0 review

Just thought I'd post and say I bought this case over the weekend. I haven't had time to put my system in it, but I really like the case, and the feel of everything init. I've never had a case with this kind of quality, all the others I've bought have been cheap and you can cut yourself on everything. You'd be hardpressed you cut yourself on any of the edges in this case it's awesome.

Though I thought it came with one more fan than it actually did, oh well, I'll just have to buy some more. And hopefully my PSU cable is long enough ehehe

How many did your ship with? IIRC, it ships with 3. The two in the back and one in the bottom.

I might as well pipe in to say I ordered mine last Friday, and a set of those Silverstone PSU extension cables as well. It's due at the end of the week. Now I gotta get on the ball and order the rest of the stuff to put in it!

Yeah that's all. I just thought it came with 4 for some reason, one in the front.

I really liked the review, though it seemed like it was overly critical in order to appear unbiased.

I have been using this case for about a month and am very impressed with it. It'd design is definitely groundbreaking. However, there is always room for improvement!

It would have been nice for the space behind the motherboard tray to be a little larger and for some slots to be cut in the motherboard tray for wire routing.

Why isn't there a passage between the PSU and the lower hard drive tray so that you could run the power wires straight there instead of having to route them up to the top compartment and then back down to the hard drives?

Something for the future- it would be very nice to have a power bus running along the case into which you could just plug in modular power cords.




I'm using an Enermax EG495-AX PSU, DFI Ultra-D Motherboard, Thermalright XP-120, and AMD 3700+ San Diego without any problems. I didn't need any cable extensions, though it took some work to figure out how to wire it all. I'm overclocking to 2750 MHz without it getting too hot or loud.



That's kind of funny- I cut myself on this case several times, more than with any other case I've used!

CJ

I contacted Antec on their 350w Phantom cable lengths:
"The 20pin connector and the 4pin ATX12V is about 21". The rest of the cables are about 25".

Everyone already knew that the cables would fit, but it may be of use to those attempting to create as clean a cable setup as possible.

Well, just got my new Seasonic power supply and this one actually works! I put it into my case with 2 Nexus fans replacing the 2 TriCools, putting one of them on low into the front for a hot Seagate SATA drive (42C with fan, 49C without), and have the 38mm in the bottom for my hard drives on low, and I can't believe how silent this case and my computer suddenly have become. I hear more air coming out of the damn vent that is 2 yards away than I do out of my computer which is 6" away!

I still hear *some* hard drive whine and I'm going to replace my GPU cooler with the VF700 as soon as it arrives, but temps are around 50-55C load on the CPU and 38-44C hard drive. I also have the Nexus fan grommet kit coming, so that should help even more.

My GPU is idle at 70C and loads around 80-85C, but again I'm going to fix that as I currently have ATI tool to keep the fan around 50% unless it hits 85C.

Wiring in this case is a PITA, but its worth it!

And let me tell you, I have never been as happy with 2 products from a review as I am with SPCR's recommendations (for the Nexus and the Seasonic power supply, once I got one that worked!)

Hats off to you guys at SPCR and those on the forums helping us newbies. It has been a long time (I remember a Klipsch review somewhere around 4 years ago and I bought the speakers and I have been more than happy with their quality) since I have had a product live up to a review. I want to extend my personal "thank you, you've saved my ears!"

Thetoad

Which Seasonic did you get? I"m looking at this case with the s12 500 PSU.

Is that the one you got? If so, it's good to hear you're having success with it.

Yes it is the 500W version. It is very quiet by my opinion. The fan is going between 800-1000 RPM in my machine (4 hard drives and the Antec 38mm on low).

It seems to be a pretty stable power supply as well. The voltages on my machine are all slightly above their rating, and I know I'm loading it pretty well, although not even close to the 500W max. I'd say I'm pulling 200W or a little more with all the crap I have in there. 5 hard drives, 2 optical drives, an X700PRO, a TV card, a Creative Audigy 2 and live drive, and a Digital Doc 5. Also have 4 fans in the machine (see post above for more info on this stuff).

This is heresy!

Someone at a computer store's forum asked if they were going to sell the P180 and/or the new Antec PSUs and the site admin (store owner) said:

"I don't think this product [P180] has the advantages of the aluminum P160 nor it's practical innovations.
I would recommend the Sharkoon case which is similar in design, more ventilated and has more internal space for tidiness."

WTF?

IIRC, I thought that the Sharkoon case was basically the same internal structure as the TJ06.

While not a bad case, I personally didn't like how the hard drives were not ventalated very well, and CRAMMED together in the top by the power supply.

Personally, I had a TJ05 before I got the P180, and I can tell you that I have never heard such a powerful computer (mine) at such a low noise level. Now, however, as the saying goes here on SPCR, once I quiet one component, I now start to hear all the others... mainly my 4 hard drives... its hard to hear them, but I can definately hear the whine.

On a side note, as I'm trying to optimise this case for quiet (that's what I bought it for obviously ) I am noticing that ASUS Q-fan does not work inside windows, and does not work for the chassis fan either. Anyone have any idea?

Also, is it ok to put Arctic Silver 5 onto a northbridge?

Thank you

AS5 is fine for a northbridge, so long as you keep it on the top of the chip and don't short anything with it.